What's the difference between rhythmic and urban?

[95-7 Ben FM]

Sorry if this is an ignorant question. What separates Rhythmic stations from Urban stations?

Mario/Crying Out For Me
8-6* on Urban
26-25* on Rhythmic

[EvanJ]

R&B ballads without rapper will do better on Urban than Rhythmic. A big example of the difference was a few years ago when "So Gone" by Monica was Number 1 for the year on Radio and Records Urban. I don't remember its Rhythmic position for that year but I don't think it was even in the Top 50. On Mediabase "I Remember" by Keyshia Cole is Number 1 on Urban and Number 24 on Rhythmic. "Don't Stop The Music" by Rihanna is Number 9 on Rhythmic and Number 70 on Urban.

Urban has on average older listeners than Rhythmic. For the markets that contribute to Arbitron's national data, here is a demographic comparsion of the two formats for the Fall 2007 season:

Rhythmic age of listeners: 25% 12-17, 30% 18-24, 36% 25-44, 9% 45+ (a majority of the listeners are below age 25 and 25-54 is the top demographic for advertisers)
The genders are balanced (49% male, 51% female)
Urban age of listeners: 17% 12-17, 22% 18-24, 42% 25-44, 19% 45+
46% male and 54% female

[jazklash]

When Rhythmic radio began, it was a spin-off of Top 40 radio with a bigger emphasis on - as the name itself implies - music where rhythm, groove and funk are the most important elements. That means anything from R&B, Hip-Hop, Dance Music, Dance Pop, Teen Pop and other such things. Thing is, in the last few years - although not so much now - it's been leaning too heavily towards the most mainstream variations of Black Pop, leaving behind styles such as the ones mentioned above. An example of a Rhythmic station in line with its roots is, for me, UK's KISS. Here's the playlist.

www.totalkiss.com/Channels/Music/Music_Playlist.aspx

[tico]

The lines between rhythmic and urban have blurred so much, it's almost hard to tell them apart. To make it even more confusing, there are a number of urbans that label themselves rhythmic in order to gain more traction with advertisers.

[atlantaboy]

Urban is specifically geared towards African-American listeners (of all ages and income levels), and most stations have African-American D. J.'s

Even though Rhythmic plays similar music, most stations are geared towards younger Caucasian listeners (usually modest income levels), as well as Hispanic and Asian listeners in many markets

Urban stations tend to have many more hours listened (each day) than Rhythmic, so they tend to rotate their top songs 60-70x a week, instead of 90-100x a week like most Rhythmic stations do

In the 90s, when Rhythmic developed as a format, there were a lot of NYC and Euro-dance acts around (La Bouche, Real McCoy, KLF, Deee-Lite, etc.), so 90s Rhythmic was a blend of dance and hip-hop...since then dance has kinda gone out of style, so in the 2000s the Rhythmic chart became closer to the Urban chart, prob. with the exceptions someone mentioned (slow R&B ballads don't necessarily catch on right away on Rhythmic)

[threedollafoaholla]

Many of the points made thus far are accurate, but I'd like to add one more.

Presentation.

Urbans tend to present more "street" than Rhythmics. That is to say that they're more directly geared toward the African American community and other ethnic groups than they are Caucasians.

Rhythmics tend to present more in the CHR style and, while in many markets (such as my own) they are the "default Urban," they tend to draw a more diverse group of listeners across all ethnicities.